Airtight container cap

ABSTRACT

An airtight container cap which comprises a ring-nut provided, on its side surface, with at least one window or slot, and on its upper surface with a circular hole, a stopper and a gasket of elastic material, said stopper being removably engagable with said ring-nut and said elastic gasket, with the gasket disposed inside the ring-nut in a position corresponding to the window.

United States Patent [191 Magnani Dec. 9, 1975 AIRTIGHT CONTAINER CAP[75] Inventor: Eugenio Magnani, Fidenza (Parma),

Italy [73] Assignee: Fidenza Vetraria S.p.A., Milan, Italy [22] Filed:Jan. 30, 1975 [21] Appl. No.: 545,362

[30] Foreign Application Priority Data Feb. 8, 1974 Italy 20319/74 [52]US. Cl. 215/276; 215/352', 2l5/354 [51] Int. Cl.. ..B65D 45/32; B65D45/34; B65D 45/30 [58] Field of Search 215/276, 352, 354

[56] References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS 2,270,729 1/1942 Geddes215/276 2,427,819 9/1947 Theher 215/276 Primary Examiner-George T. HallAttorney, Agent, or FirmHubbell, Cohen, & Stiefel [57] ABSTRACT Anairtight container cap which comprises a ring-nut provided, on its sidesurface, with at least one window or slot, and on its upper surface witha circular hole, a stopper and a gasket of elastic material, saidstopper being removably engagable with said ring-nut and said elasticgasket, with the gasket disposed inside the ringnut in a positioncorresponding to the window.

6 Claims, 3 Drawing Figures US. Patent Dec. 9, 1975 3,924,772

AIRTIGHT CONTAINER CAP BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of theInvention The present invention relates to an improved container caphaving an airtight lock, particularly for glass jars suited for thepreservation of products contained therein, either under vacuum, or atatmospheric pressure.

In general such jars are used for the preservation of foodstuffs.

2. Description of the Prior Art Airtight container caps are, of course,known in the art. For example, it is known to use caps which are pressedonto a lip or rim provided on the neck of a jar, after interposing anelastic sealing gasket between such lip or rim and the cap, which capsare maintained in a sealing position by means of metal hook lockingdevices, spring clamp lockings or the like.

To open a container sealed with such a cap, it is necessary to simplyunfasten the locking device when the container is under atmosphericpressure. In contrast, when the container has been sealed underpressure, it is necessary to unfasten the metal locking device andsubsequently to deform the elastic sealing gasket, generally by pullingon a small tongue, with which the gasket is provided for this purpose,in order to equalize the inside pressure of the container with theoutside pressure, by allowing air to flow into the container.

The airtight seal provided by such caps in the case of preservationunder atmospheric pressure leaves much to be desired, since the pressureis not uniformly distributed over the entire elastic gasket.

Italian Pat. No. 766,313 discloses an airtight container cap capable ofachieving a good seal, said cap comprising a metal ring-nut, and a glassplug or stopper with a gasket of elastic material disposed therebetween.

These three component elements, of a particular shape, are associatedwith each other in a removable way. The gasket has peripheral tangswhich engage a groove provided on the inner side of the metal ring-nut,and the glass stopper is provided with teeth.

With this type of locking cap, if the inside of the container is underatmospheric pressure, the opening of the container itself is achieved bysimply unscrewing the ring-nut from the neck of the container. In thisoperation, of course, the glass stopper remains integral with the metalring-nut as a result of the gripping action of the gasket tangs whichhold the stopper constrained to the ring-nut itself.

If, on the contrary, the inside of the container is at a lower pressurethan atmospheric pressure, that is, in

the case of products preserved under vacuum, the opening of thecontainer causes a separation or disassociation of the glass stopperfrom the metal ring-nut.

In fact, in such a case, in order to open the container, the followingprocedure must be followed.

The metal ring-nut must first be unscrewed from the neck of thecontainer. By this step the ring-nut is removed, it being disengagedfrom the tangs of the sealing gasket, while the glass stopper and thegasket itself remain adhering to the opening of the container as aresult of the outer atmospheric pressure acting on the stopper.

In order to remove the stopper it is necessary to pull at one of thegasket tangs thereby deforming the gasket and causing an inflow of airinto the interior of the jar 2 so as to bring the inner pressure intoequilibrium with the outside pressure. Once a balance between the insideand outside pressure has been established, the stopper with the gasketare easily removed.

It is quite evident that with this type of cap the opening of acontainer sealed under vacuum results in a separation of the metalring-nut from the glass stopper and from the sealing gasket withconsiderable practical drawbacks for the user who is compelled toreassemble the component elements of the cap itself.

Moreover, this type of cap requires a special configuration of the metalring-nut and, in particular, of the glass stopper and the elasticsealing gasket.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION According to the invention, there is provided acap for the airtight closure of a container used for the preservation ofproducts both at atmospheric pressure and under vacuum, which capeliminates'the above indicated drawbacks. Moreover, the cap provided bythe intervention is completely hermetic. In addition, the cap accordingto the invention is such that, when opening the container, it is notnecessary to disassemble the cap into its component elements whether thecontainer is at atmospheric pressure or under vacuum.

Finally, the cap according to the invention is made up of componentelements having a simple shape.

The airtight container cap according to the invention comprises aring-nut provided, on its side surface, with at least one window orslot, a stopper and a gasket of elastic material, said stopper beingremovably engagable with said ring-nut and said elastic gasket, with thegasket disposed inside the ring-nut in a position corresponding to thewindow.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS FIG. 1 shows in schematic form, anaxonometric view of a glass jar having a sealing cap according to theinvention, with its individual component elements shown in an explodedview;

FIG. 2 represents the component elements of FIG. 1

DESCRIPTION or THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENT The invention will now bedescribed in more detail in conjunction with the attached drawing.

Referring now to the drawing, wherein like reference numerals refer tolike parts, the airtight cap comprises (FIG. 1) a ring-nut 1 made, forexample, of plastic material and provided with an upper circular hole 2and a window or slot 3 on the side surface thereof. Ring-nut 1 isprovided with an internal female thread 4 for engagement with acomplementary male thread 5 provided in the neck 6 of glass jar 7.

Of course, both the ring-nut as well as the jar neck, instead of beingrespectively provided with female and male threads, may have any otherequivalent and known screwing or locking system, such as, for instance,a bayonet lock or a system of segments and the like.

Mounted within ring-nut 1, is glass stopper 8 which is removablyengagable therewith. Removable engagement of glass stopper 8 with rin-nut 1 is effected by pushing the stopper 8 into hole 2 ll't ring-nut 1as shown in FIG. 3. For this purpose, glass stopper 8 is provided (FIG.2) with a groove 9 in its upper portion, which allows stopper 8 to becoupled with hole 2 of ring-nut 1 (FIG. 3). The lower portion of stopper8 is provided with a groove 10 for coupling the stopper 8 with circulargasket 11 made of an elastic material, such as rubber.

In general, the assembly of the cap is carried out by fitting gasket 11into groove 10 of glass stopper 8 and by then mounting the stopper withthe gasket fitted thereto into the inside of ring-nut 1 through hole 2.

This operation is easily carried out since it does not require anyspecial techniques, only simple pressure of the hands. 7

Once assembled, the component elements, i.e., ringnut l, stopper 8 andgasket 11 form the cap ensemble which is ready for use as an hermeticlock for jar 7. When the cap is assembled as hereinabove described,gasket 11 aligns itself within ring-nut 1 in correspondence with window3, as seen in FIG. 3.

When it is necessary to clean the cap or substitute a new gasket, thereverse operation of the one herein above described is followed, wherebythe three component elements (ring-nut, stopper and gasket) are easilydisassembled. In order to hermetically seal jar7, it is sufficient tosimply screw the cap ensemble onto the jar neck 6. The hermetical sealis ensured by gasket 11 (FIG. 3) which is squeezed between shoulder 12of groove 10 in stopper 8 and the upper rim of jar neck 6.

In order to open the jar, when it has been closed at atmosphericpressure, it will suffice to simply unscrew the cap which separates fromthe jar intact, that is, with ring-nut l, stopper 8 and gasket 11coupled to each other. In order to open the jar when it has been closedunder vacuum, one proceeds in the following manner:

Ring-nut 1 is unscrewed slightly (FIG. 3) after which a pointed object,such as the point of a knife or a screw driver or the like, is insertedthrough window 3, pushing it between-gasket 11 and the upper rim of jarneck 6 whereby to let air flow into the jar from outside. This willequalize the pressures within and without the jar. Then, the ring-nutcan be unscrewed completely so as to separate the cap from the glassjar, the cap remaining also in this case, fully intact.

Variations and modifications can, of course, be made without departingfrom the spirit and scope of the invention.

Having thus described our invention, what we desire to secure by LettersPatent and hereby claim is:

1. An airtight container cap comprising a ring-nut provided, on the topsurface thereof, with a circular hole and on the side surface thereof,with at least one window, a stopper adapted for removable engagementwith the circular hole in said ring-nut and an elastic gasket providedwith a central opening adapted to be removably inserted within saidring-nut in alignment with the window.

2. An airtight container cap according to claim 1, wherein the stopperincludes a central portion having a diameter substantially equal to thatof the ring-nut, an upper portion having a diameter substantially equalto that of the circular hole in the ring-nut to facilitate removableengagement of the stopper in said circular hole, and a lower portionhaving a diameter substantially equal to the diameter of the centralopening in the gasket to facilitate the removable insertion of the lowerportion within said central opening and the removable insertion of thegasket within said ring-nut.

3. An airtight container cap according to claim 1, wherein the ring-nutincludes sealing means for securing the cap to a container provided withcomplementary sealing means.

4. An airtight container cap according to claim 3, wherein the sealingmeans in the ring-nut is an internal thread and the complementarysealing means on the container is a complementary thread.

5. An airtight container cap according to claim 1, wherein the ring-nutis formed of a plastic material, the stopper is formed of glass and theelastic gasket is formed of rubber.

6. In combination, an airtight container cap as claimed in claim 1 and acontainer.

1. An airtight container cap comprising a ring-nut provided, on the topsurface thereof, with a circular hole and on the side surface thereof,with at least one window, a stopper adapted for removable engagementwith the circular hole in said ring-nut and an elastic gasket providedwith a central opening adapted to be removably inserted within saidring-nut in alignment with the window.
 2. An airtight container capaccording to claim 1, wherein the stopper includes a central portionhaving a diameter substantially equal to that of the ring-nut, an upperportion having a diameter substantially equal to that of the circularhole in the ring-nut to facilitate removable engagement of the stopperin said circular hole, and a lower portion having a diametersubstantially equal to the diameter of the central opening in the gasketto facilitate the removable insertion of the lower portion within saidcentral opening and the removable insertion of the gasket within saidring-nut.
 3. An airtight container cap according to claim 1, wherein thering-nut includes sealing means for securing the cap to a containerprovided with complementary sealing means.
 4. An airtight container capaccording to claim 3, wherein the sealing means in the ring-nut is aninternal thread and the complementary sealing means on the container isa complementary thread.
 5. An airtight container cap according to claim1, wherein the ring-nut is formed of a plastic material, the stopper isformed of glass and the elastic gasket is formed of rubber.
 6. Incombination, an airtight container cap as claimed in claim 1 and acontainer.